A Tale for the Time Being

by Ruth Ozeki

Hardcover, 422 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2013 by Viking.

ISBN:: 978-0-670-02663-0
OCLC Number:: 853093299

(41 reviews)

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a …

6 editions

pdotb@wyrms.de reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Good until the deus ex machina

4 stars

Content warning spoilers, cw: suicide, bullying, sexual assault

I'm a bit torn as to how to review this. It was all going so well until the last fifty pages or so. Well, two of the main characters are suicidal for much of the book, and there's some pretty awful bullying going on, but it's still, somehow, enjoyable. All of a sudden things are neatly tied up by an intervention that comes out of nowhere, and then we're off into QM and Schrödinger's cat, and Everett's many-worlds interpretation, and I'm just wondering where the novel went to...

Stephanie Jane reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

I liked the Japanese narratives

4 stars

I listened to the audio version of A Tale For The Time Being which is nicely read by Ruth Ozeki herself. There is an interesting few minutes after the novel finishes when she talks about the differences between the print and audio versions and I'm confident I chose the right one this time!

The novel is made up of several story strands and I found the Japanese characters fascinating. Nao and her family allows the reader to discover life in contemporary Japan, her great-uncles' letters and diary illuminate WW2 Japan, her great-great-aunt is a Buddhist nun in a temple. By contrast, the other side of the tale, Ruth and Oliver living on a Canadian island, I found irritating and, certainly in Oliver's case, pompous. He came across as a device to explain factual information the reader needed to know and Ruth as a bit of a dimwit on the receiving end of his lectures. Ozeki explores a lot of theories, environmental and scientific, philosophical and religious. Some of these slot naturally into a story, others felt awkwardly shoehorned. Overall I thought this was a good book, unusual enough to keep my interest while walking my commutes and I'm glad to have heard it read by the author.

loppear reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Nearly great.

4 stars

Interwoven overlapping generational threads of suicide, conscience, violence of school kids and world wars, with a Buddhist tinge of questioning impermanence and cause. The author's character is a little loud at times and the ending is optional.

Jennifer reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Maybe the best thing I read this year!!!

avid-reader reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Best book I have read this year!

Kathleen reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I LOVED Nao’s sections of this book and they’re the reason this is a five-star rating. So well-written, culturally informative, and engaging. I feel like Ruth’s sections were added in as an afterthought—they didn’t really contribute much to the story. I enjoyed her thoughts as an observer of Nao’s diary. but the interlacing of her life with the story just didn’t really make sense to me.

Overall, really excellent book. It was really hard to put down toward the end, and if there’s a sequel that details Nao’s life post-diary (from her own POV, with nobody else’s), I’ll snatch it up in a minute.

doug reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Having lived in B.C. and Tokyo, a lot in this book was quite familiar to me. It was comfortable reading. There's some beautiful prose in parts. She succeeds in both epistolary and magical realism, two devices I'm quite particular about. The former I knew of beforehand, the latter was a (not unpleasant) surprise.

Baltipink reviewed A tale for the time being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A tale for the time being' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I had to sleep on this one before I could review it. I agree with the negative reviews that lament how the book tanked when it turned metaphysical/quantum, but not with the ppl who despised Ruth's parts generally. The first part of the book is five stars, something I don't give to much. Compelling characters and story and meditations on the most fundamental aspects of life - death, aging, how we survive awful things that happen to us, how we live with the fact that we are forced to do awful things to live, how we grapple with deterioration of mind and body, what we sacrifice for those we love, how we live for those we love, when there truly is no option but suicide. But then the author takes this turn into wondering about time that kills the narrative and should have been a different book. It also felt …

GG reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Is there a more irritating fictional character than the precociously clever teen who is wise beyond her years? Not to me. This book was okay, but the main character's voice was far too annoying, the plot wasn't interesting enough, and the minor bit of magical realism wasn't sufficient to sustain the story.

Hilo reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Hat mich sehr glücklich und sehr traurig zugleich gemacht.

Ikwezi reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I loved everything about this book and disliked nothing, even the presence of the author as one of the main characters, normally a bad sign. Having already read a couple of the other books on the 2013 Booker Prize shortlist, including the eventual winner, I liked this one best of all.

pithypants reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The characters - and their plights - really came to life for me, especially the storyline set in Japan. Alternating between storylines was particularly effective at keeping the story moving. I found it fascinating to get a glimpse into modern-day Japan - and a look back at the kamakazi bombers from WWII. There was a lot about this book that piqued my curiosity - and satisfied it.

There's a bit of metaphysical magic in here. I was fine with it, but I could see that derailing the entire thing for someone like my mom, who wants her books to be fully based in a reality she can understand. If you did NOT like The Art of Racing in the Rain because the dog was able to talk, then you may have issues with this book. But if you're able to suspend disbelief, then dive right in - it's a pleasurable …

MarianneBrix reviewed A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Review of 'A Tale for the Time Being' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Quantumfysica, paralelle werelden die met elkaar in aanraking komen, theorien van Hugh Everett en het experiment met Schrödingers kat. Allemaal vrij complexe en interessante zaken, afgewisseld met een, helaas, te zwak verhaal van een Japanse "coming of age" en een Japans/Amerikaanse vrouw (lees: de auteur) met een writers block.